Test 1: Is an experiment in the style of Norwegian Producer, Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) referencing his 2016 concept album Departed Glories. He sets obscure Eastern European and Russian folk music to austere drones and intricate sound designs. For this test, I am using the “palm playing samples” which contain a lot of different tones and frequencies within the same sample. This will work really well for creating some interesting drones and textures.
I did some research on old Ukrainian folk song and found a live recording on YouTube which had a “Departed Glories” feel and used it for the vocal elements .
Drone 2: I moved through the sample until I found two continuous smooth modulations and set the pitch at F2, this would give me my middle frequencies. I added the Waves H Reverb on the insert with a slightly wetter signal than the first drone and reduced the EQ at 1K.
Drone 3: gave me my high frequencies pitching in at F3 using a much more fractured modulation. The H Reverb was once again applied, this time using a very dry signal and
no EQ.
Conclusions: I am really surprised at the versatility of just one sound stone sample, using the samples at different pitches creates completely different sounds even when the effects are very similar. I particularly liked the sound of "drone 2" and the way it complimented the haunting qualities of the vocals. For a future project, I would like to research some unusual vocal styles and use the sound stone samples as the backdrop.
Drone 1: (Sound Stone 7 Palm) had pretty even timing with a smooth over tone which I
knew would work well for the bass drone. I started by pitching this sample down from
D5 to A0, added the Waves H Reverb to smooth out the mid frequencies and made a EQ reduction at 500Hz.
I used just one sample for this piece, Sound Stone 7 Palm. I created three different drones using various start points, pitches, reverbs and loops.
Drone 1: Processed with Effects.
Drone 2: Processed with Effects.
To programme and mix the track, I bounced down the audio of each drone with the effects on, this gave me the ability to have more control over the fades. I kept the programming very simple just working with large loops and no audio edits.
Drone 3: Processed with Effects.